Stating clearly that McDonald’s advertising will not acknowledge the existence of lesbian or gay diners in the United States — and that such advertising may be withdrawn elsewhere around the world — the company’s chief operations officer Don Thompson had this to say to the Chicago Tribune:
Thompson: (We talk) about things that may have an implication in one part of the world and may be the cultural norm in another part of the world. And those are things that, yes, we’re going to learn from. But, you’re right, that commercial won’t show in the United States.
Chicago Tribune: How has it done in France?
Thompson: Interestingly enough, there have been no negatives coming out of France. The brand is a local brand and different things will occur in different parts of the world. We just have to make sure that we understand the impact one action may make on another part of the world.
Translation: McDonald’s does not wish to offend bigots in its central African and Islamist market territories, so in the interest of global cohesion, McDonald’s will ostracize certain minorities from its advertising all over the world.
Gays are not the only demographic that is stigmatized in nether regions of the world; Jews are verboten throughout the Arab world, and Hispanics are unwelcome in the American Southwest.
Can we expect them to be ostracized, as well, by a Christian Right operations chief who bases corporate “core values” upon the prejudices of the world’s most primitive and oppressive places?
Focus on the Family today mourned the NCAA’s cancellation of a Focus ad which implicitly shamed the parents of gay Americans.
The ad, which had been shown on the basketball tournament web site, insinuated that politically incorrect families — non-evangelicals, pro-choice families, and families of gay people — can’t “Celebrate Family” and “Celebrate Life” like everyone else.
The ad’s tagline further insinuated that fathers whose sons are not “right” for any reason are doomed to a life of disappointment — and that someone or something sinister should be blamed.
Focus failed to explain to its readers the many reasons why the NCAA found its ad offensive.
Emproph, of the Genocide for Jesus blog, has transcribed and critiqued the hate ad that was released by the anti-family “Family Policy Council of West Virginia.”
Emproph points out that the state network of religious-rightist family-policy groups offers resources for pastors — assembled by a senior executive for the Family Research Council — which promote a “Biblical” definition of marriage that tolerates and excuses the Bible’s support for marital incest, polygamy, and murder.
Even before the latest ad emerged, it seemed that the Family Policy Council, FRC, and SBC were vying to be included in the SPLC’s growing list of hate groups — organizations whose beliefs or practices attack or malign an entire class of people.
But in the context of this ad and its related resources for pastors, it seems that gays are not the only enemy of ‘Biblical’ marriage; so are married couples that oppose incest, polygamy, and murder.
Complaints from local residents compelled a billboard agency to remove a P-FOX ad along Interstate 19 in Tucson, Arizona, only three days after the billboard was first noticed.
P-FOX didn’t pay for the billboard, but it was placed in a non-revenue space by Clear Channel Outdoor.
Jason Cianciotto of Wingspan asked KVOA, “What gives? Why in the world as we focus on holidays does Clear Channel support attacking a minority group here in Southern Arizona?” says Cianciotto.
Wingspan is southern Arizona’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community center. Cianciotto has in the past defended gay youth from harassment and attempted censorship by antigay political activists.
Cianciotto told KVOA, “I think Clear Channel needs to answer some questions because who’s to say they’re not going to put up another PSA for conversion therapy.”
As a youth, Cianciotto was subjected by his parents and a “Christian lay counselor” to forced isolation, repression, and eventually abandonment when it became apparent that ex-gay “change” wasn’t really possible.
Columnist Anne T. Denogean wrote about Cianciotto’ difficult adolescence in an article in the Tucson Citizen in April 2008. Truth Wins Out commented on the ex-gay abuse suffered by Cianciotto here.
After a “victory” in the removal of a British mayonnaise commercial over its portrayal of a gay family, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly sat down once again with Truth Wins Out Executive Director and founder Wayne Besen to defend a recent ad for the Snickers candy bar that has received similar treatment.
Truth Wins Out executive director Wayne Besen appeared on CNN Headline News today to defend a British TV ad which featured gay men in parental roles, serving Heinz mayonnaise.
Besen criticized U.S. foodmaker H.J. Heinz for succumbing to homophobia and withdrawing the ad under pressure from the right-wing American Family Association. About 200 viewer complaints were received by British regulators.
Here’s the ad:
Truth Wins Out defended the ad:
The Headline News segment included Randy Sharp of the AFA, who claimed that the ad promoted a homosexual lifestyle: “What does mayonnaise have to do with homosexuals and their lifestyle?” Sharp claimed that 70,000 AFA supporters in the United States disagreed with the ad.
Business marketing analyst Dan Hill said Heinz was right to pull the ad. Hill said:
“In business you can never afford to forget that the bottom line is that ‘family values’ means ‘my family, not your family,’ and I think in the UK most households have traditional family structures.”
Besen responded that gay couples are well-accepted in the United Kingdom and that gay soldiers have been allowed to serve in British armed forces with great success.
An antigay outfit called Life Productions aired a Canadian TV ex-gay ad featuring a man with no name, no history, no evidence of a sexual orientation, and no explanation of how he “changed.”
In the ad, the mystery man claims that his (somewhat dubious) existence is proof that people can “change,” but he offers viewers no guidance on how or where to change. Instead, he implies that the recognition of gay persons’ equality under the law somehow threatens the public’s ability to learn about no-name people like him.
Since no guidance is offered in the ad, nor on Life Productions’ web site, the ad appears to be a ploy by Life Productions to collect personal information from troubled individuals without guarantees of privacy nor promises that the information won’t be shared with antigay political organizations. Worse, presumably troubled individuals are told by the web site’s contact form that “due to high volumes of mail we regret we cannot answer everyone.”
After an initial airing on CTV, Canada’s largest private broadcaster, a Facebook campaign last week persuaded the network to revisit the ad. Its issue advocacy and implicit approval of discrimination were found to violate the network’s ethicalstandards, and CTV withdrew the ad.
Critics of the ex-gay political movement sometimes observe that successful ex-gays rarely seem to exist as real people with real names — except when they are paid political hacks of the religious right. Critics also observe that the movement commits more resources to politics than to helping people with specific paths to “change.”
In the ad, the mystery man claims that his (somewhat dubious) existence is proof that people can “change,” but he offers viewers no guidance on how or where to change. Instead, he implies that the recognition of gay persons’ equality under the law somehow threatens the public’s ability to learn about no-name people like him.
